Global Bioterrorism Threat Analyzed For World Animal Health Office

Around the globe, many nations are realizing that the
potential for bioterrorism isn’t just about the U.S., officials say.

Source: AgriLife Today | Jul 25, 2011

Around the globe, many nations are realizing that the potential for bioterrorism isn’t just about the U.S., officials say.

And because an intentional introduction of bacteria, a virus or a toxin could happen anywhere, the World Organization for Animal Health is issuing a paper aimed at prevention. The organization is known as OIE for Office International des Epizootics.

“Any emerging country that is beginning to think about maintaining international trade needs to be aware of the potential for bioterrorism,” says Neville Clarke, special assistant to the Texas A&M University System’s vice chancellor of agriculture.

Clarke is lead author of “Bioterrorism: intentional introduction of animal disease,” which appears in the animal health organization’s journal, Scientific and Technical Review this month.

Around the globe, many nations are realizing that the potential for bioterrorism isn’t just about the U.S., officials say.

First off, bioterrorism is not new.

The intentional introduction of animal disease dates to the Middle Ages when “diseased carcasses and bodies were catapulted over enemy walls in attempts to induce sickness in humans or animals,” Clarke wrote with co-author Jennifer L. Rinderknecht, Texas AgriLife research assistant.